US confirms diplomats in China hit by strange illness
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if theres really a problem then the u.s. side can directly contact the chinese side and communicate and china will continue to conscientiously investigate and coordinate with a responsible attitude hua said1 the u.s. state department has brought a group of diplomats home from guangzhou china over concern they were suffering from a mysterious malady that resembles a brain injury and has already affected u.s. personnel in cuba a spokeswoman said1 as a result of the screening process so far the department has sent a number of individuals for further evaluation and a comprehensive assessment of their symptoms and findings in the united states nauert said1 medical professionals will continue to conduct full evaluations to determine the cause of the reported symptoms and whether the findings are consistent with those noted in previously affected government personnel or possibly completely unrelated she said1 the new york times reported that the state department had evacuated at least two americans who fell ill after hearing strange noises in china1 chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman hua chunying said on thursday that as far as she was aware the government had not had any formal communication with u.s. officials on any new cases and that it had investigated an initial incident1 at present theres been no discovery of clues or the reason causing the situation the united states mentioned hua told a regular news briefing in beijing adding that china protected diplomats according to international convention1 after confirming one government employee had suffered a medical incident in the southern chinese city the department deployed a team to screen employees and family members at its consulate there spokeswoman heather nauert said in a statement on wednesday1 four american members of staff at the u.s. consulate in guangzhou referred reuters to the beijing embassy press office when asked about the situation1 a u.s. government official there reiterated that there had been only one confirmed case in china announced last month and the state department was offering screening to anyone in the u.s. embassy or consulates in china who requested it1 in addition to the beijing embassy and guangzhou consulate the united states operates consulates in the mainland chinese cities of chengdu shanghai shenyang and wuhan1 last year 24 u.s. government employees and family members in cuba displayed the symptoms which were similar to those related to concussion and mild traumatic brain injury according to the state department1 the illnesses among the american diplomats stationed in havana heightened tension between the old cold war foes1 secretary of state mike pompeo released a statement on tuesday saying the department established a task force last month to direct a multi-agency response to the unexplained health incidents1 the precise nature of the injuries suffered by the affected personnel and whether a common cause exists for all cases has not yet been established pompeo said1